


Better Together

by 20Zvorak17



Category: Avengers
Genre: Female Tony, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Shit's hard but it gets better, Street Kids, Tiny mentions of prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 02:08:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11071839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/20Zvorak17/pseuds/20Zvorak17
Summary: Steve was real sick of his foster parents knocking him around so when he hits his growth spurt at fifteen and his foster dad takes a swing at him, he swings back.And there is a gun.And he runs.And he finds a new family in Toni who he meets as she cleans glasses behind the bar she can't be old enough to work at and Nat who picks pockets like she was born to.





	Better Together

When he was thirteen his Ma died. Now, at fifteen, he's about convinced that his Ma was the only decent parent in the state. Steve is glad to have hit his growth spurt, tired of foster dads hitting him because of his small size.  His current foster dad is bigger than him, of course, but Steve's big enough, he hopes, to deter the man.

No cigar, he learn later that night when his foster father decides Steve is somehow responsible for the shirt which shrunk in the laundry, despite that he hadn't touched that load of laundry. So, because Steve finally can, he hauls off and decks the man back. The triumphant feeling lasts only until the older of them draws a gun and Steve tears off out the door, running hell for leather. 

He skids around a corner and slows, considering his options. He can't go back; that much is obvious. He can call his case worker but it'll all be blamed on him. The streets it is, he decides. His foster father's yells are getting louder behind him and he ducks into a bar; it's empty and according to the sign closed, but the door ain't locked.

"Hey there, studly." Says a girl, decidedly not twenty one; hell, she can't be more than sixteen. "You aren't old enough to be in here," she says, somewhat hypocritically, "and we're closed besides." But then her eyes catch on his black eye and her eyes narrow. She inhales sharply. "Your pop do that?"

"Foster dad." He admits, a strong Brooklyn accent clear in his words. "An' he pulled a gun." He gives an odd sort of shrug. "Not going back." This feels more than awkward, talking about his shit circumstances with an underage bartender whose circumstances must be similarly dire. 

"You know what you're doing?" She asks him, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, no, but how hard c'n it be?"

She laughs sort of bitterly. "Honey, that's what I thought. Me and my best friend got five jobs between us and we still don't have an address."

"Might be easier if we stick together?" He suggests because he doesn't want to be alone on top of being frightened.

"Gotta run it by Nat. You can call me Toni." She finishes up cleaning the bar. "Come on." She marches off towards the door with the bar keys in hand, suddenly enough that he startles before rushing to keep up.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

She carefully pulls a broken screen out of a window of what he knows is a building that was going to be a hotel before the funding ran out. After climbing through, she places it back. In the meantime he observes his surroundings. The place looks like every other construction site but there is nobody in this area to be seen. Clearly these girls don't want to be found. Even the floor looks only a bit disturbed. He thinks the first thing he would have done would be clean it up and make it homey but he hasn't been on the streets for years, either.

"We don't have plumbing," she tells him, "we go across to the 24 hour McDonald's. We got an icebox for food. I managed to jimmy-rig electricity for light, but no way I would've gotten enough for a fridge." She continued to explain their set up as she led him through hallways and up stairs and then finally does a knock on one of the room doors, which he recognizes as Morse code, and knows it to be T-O-N-I.

"This is Nat," she introduces him to a redhead whose leg is splinted and is clearly in a hell of a lot of pain. Toni turns to the other girl and pulls money out of her bra. "Nat, this is Steve. His foster dad threatened his life. Can he stay?"

"Is he useful?" The red-head returns.

"I got a sorta steady income," He interjects. "I sell my art and occasionally I write papers for people, too. I charge thirty bucks for the first and fifty for the second."

"With you off your feet we could use more money coming in," Toni points out and Steve wonders why she's decided to champion his cause.

"Fine," the older girl returns, "but I'm not sharing my mattress. He's your stray anyway." She catches sight of the money Toni had brought home and sighs as the defeat sets in. "Yeah, we need him. That's not your usual haul."

Toni bit her lip uncomfortably, shooting Steve a sideways glance. "Didn't have time for entrepreneurship tonight. And...maybe with a third income we can both stop....moonlighting."  And Steve's still fairly naive, but stupid he is not. Her discomfort, her dodging around what she's actually talking about and the boots beside her mattress that he's fairly sure must go thigh-high clue him in to the situation.

And if he can, he'll make so neither of them ever has to _moonlight_ again. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter's really short because it just sets it up, kind of


End file.
